the excavation of the athenian agora twelfth season: 1947

166 HOMER A. THOMPSON
the north slope of the Areopagus, reminiscent also of the grouping of tombs of the
same period at such sites as MVycenae and the Argive Heraeum.
The Geometric Period is represented by a single burial laid in the very bottom
of the valley between the Areopagus and the Hill of the Nymphs: a child's pot burial
contained in a large banded amphora of the late 8th century B.C. Probably of the
7th century is a pot burial of a child made in a large coarse pithos whiclh was set down
in the rock of the western slope of the Areopagus.
In 1939-40 a family burial plot of the archaic period had been cleared on the
lower west slope of the Areopagus, just below the early road that swung around the
shoulder of the hill.17 In 1947, some 15 metres to the northwest of the enclosure
around that cemetery, appeared a. cist grave furnished with the small black-figured
lekythos of P1. 46, 1. On the wall of the vase are three runners, on the shoulder a
cock between lotus buds; the date will be the third quarter of the 6th century.18
Although the area had been much disturbed in the Hellenistic period, traces were
noted of two or possibly three other cuttings similar to that of the cist grave and
around them were found fragments of black-figured lekythoi most likely deriving from
disturbed burials. These indications suggest a second small family burial plot on the
slope of the Areopagus. Directly across the valley, on the slope of the Hill of the
Nymphs, there came to light remains of a cremation of the sixth century: a pit much
reddened by fire, splinters of calcined bones, and three black-figured lekythoi, burned
and broken but complete.
A fragmentary marble roof-tile inscribed with the name of Agonippos and found
lying loose on bedrock on the lowver slope of the Areopagus has every appearance of
being a simple grave nmarker of about the middle of the fifth century; no certain trace
of a grave, however, appeared in the neighborhood (P1. 46, 2).
From the anthropological point of view the most interesting burials found in
this area are those of the fourth and third centuries m.c.; four were cleared in 1947
among the foundations of the Hellenistic houses. All were cremation burials, the fires
having been kindled either on the level grotund or in a shallow pit. Among the ash
and charcoal were found bits of calcined bone and the funeral offerings which are
both numerous and distinctive. One typical grave group is shown in Pl. 46, 3. The
furnishings normally comprise several ordinary black-glazed drinking cups and bowls
together with a lamp of regular type. More characteristic are the nunmbers of small
lidded casseroles, flat two-handled saucers with banded decoration, miniature open
bowls and small pyxides. Two of the burials of 1947 contained each an alabastron
of poros. Several of the types of vases found in these interments were obviously made
for funerary use and were undoubtedly employed in the service at the pyre. The
17 Hesperia, IX, 1940, p. 302; X, 1941, p. 1.
:18P 18,006. Height, 0.13 m. Cf. Haspels, Attic Black-Figured Lekythoi, pls. 11-13: " The
Shoulder-Lekythos of ca. 540-530."